South African mountain biker Burry Stander, who finished fifth in the Olympic cross-country race at Hadleigh Farm in Essex last summer and won the under-23 world championship in that discipline in 2009, has been killed at the age of 25. He was hit by a car - reportedly a taxi, according to local sources - as he headed home from a training ride.

Three months before the Olympic Games last summer, Stander got married to elite road cyclist Cherise Taylor, which the Specialized rider described as "the best moment of my life."

Cycling South Africa spokesperson Mylene Loumeau said: "He was returning from a training ride in Shelly Beach, on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, and was hit by a vehicle.”

No further details are available as yet. Stander’s death comes almost two years after one of South Africa’s leading female riders, Carla Swart, was herself killed on a training ride. Swart, who had joined HTC-Highroad shortly before her death, was aged 23.

This sad incident has given more impetus to calls for a 1.5m safe passing law like the one shortly to be enacted here in the Western Cape. If the rest of SA follows suit, Burry's death will not have been in vain.